Sometimes we need to change our mindset and flip how we view the world. Hopefully this blog will help start that change.

Can you put a price on learning?

There is a limited amount of technology in my classroom for anyone to use, let alone students. I only have three netbooks, but I always keep them charged and have told my students repeatedly to use them if they want to do a search for something I was discussing.

I have 1 student whose computer has been broken for weeks and he still has not filled out the first day of school info sheet on the website. So, I turned on the netbook, plopped it on his desk and had him complete the form. I move on with the lesson and I notice that about halfway through the period he still has the computer open and is staring intently at the screen. There’s no way that it is taking him 20+ minutes to fill out this questionnaire, so I swing over to see what he is doing as the rest of the class is copying some notes.

In the course of the lesson on the atom, I mentioned that you can put a halogen lightbulb in a microwave and it will glow from the microwaves excited the atoms. He heard this and decided to look it up on Youtube. Well, that video led him to a series of videos of people microwaving different materials and explaining why the material that it was made of smoked or conducted electricity or glowed. He was fascinated! When I asked him what he was watching, he got so excited and started describing to the class what happened to a CD.

Can he write shorthand notation for identifying protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom? No. Was he excited about learning and engaged for the entire period? Absolutely.